The SB2C was designed by Curtiss engineer Raymond C. Blaylock as the main U.S. Navy dive bomber. The Navy 1938 specifications left small room for improvisation: the aircraft had to be a two-seat bomber with wings raised from their low position in order to allow space for an internal bay beneath it. This bay would carry the 454 kg bomb load. The structure had to be strong enough for dive-bombing and the plane had to be carrier compatible, with folding wings, catapult hooks and arrester hook. The specified engine was the Wright R-2600 14-cylinder Cyclone.
The first prototype, XSB2C-1, was very similar to its rival in the Navy contract, the Brewster XSB2A-1 Buccaneer. The Navy had so much faith in the Curtiss aircraft that it ordered 200 SB2C-1s even before the prototype made its first flight on 18 December 1940.
By the beginning of 1941, Curtiss started a vast building plan at its new factories at Columbus, Ohio and Canada (Montreal and Fort William). The confidence in the success of this aircraft was soon darkened by the serious problems that it had. Some of them were typical of an aircraft not yet well developed, such as the engine and the Curtiss Electric three-bladed propeller. But others affected the plane badly: its structure was weak and its handling poor. It also lacked stability. On top of that, the test prototype suffered an accident in February 1941 due to engine failure, but as the building programme was already taking shape, Curtiss had to make all the changes on the way. Almost every part was changed: the fuselage became longer and the tail areas one third larger. Other changes included the addition of an autopilot to help the poor stability, self-sealing tanks and the forward-firing armament was changed from the cowling to the wings. The rear cockpit was changed to increase the range of fire of the observer and the single 12.7 mm gun was changed to a twin 7.62 mm gun. Bomb racks were also added for two 147 kg bombs. All this redesign was not on paper until October 1941.
Curtiss had agreed to start production by December 1941, but when the war broke out, not a single aircraft had been built yet. Furthermore, another 900 Helldivers had been ordered for the U.S. Army as A-25 Shrikes. The first Helldivers could not appear until June 1942, exactly 10 days after the first Grumman TBF Avengers had gone into action although their design had been started almost two years later than the controversial SB2C.
Urgent testing of the first production planes concluded that they were even worse than the original prototype due to the great increase in weight. Without time for major changes, the first SB2C-1s were delivered to the Navy by December 1942. There was even an investigation by the Truman Committee on the National Defence Program which compiled an unfavorable report on the aircraft and the producer. The Army A-25s were diverted to other customers and the planes sent to the British Fleet Arm were only used as trainers and never saw combat.
The first action of the Helldiver was carried out by bomber squadron VB-17 from USS Bunker Hill against the Japanese base at Rabaul, New Guinea, on 11 November 1943. More improvements were made in the SB2C-3 and 4 versions and by 1944 the Helldiver was becoming operationally well stablished in service. U.S. Navy pilots longing for the old SBD Dauntless called the new versions "The Beast" and "Son of a Bitch, 2nd Class", although others well-acquainted with it thought these nicknames were unfair.
The final production Helldiver was the SB2C-5 which appeared almost at the end of the war with slightly increased internal fuel capacity. After the war, some Helldivers were in service in the Navy Reserve until 1947. Others were sold to Italy, Portugal, Thailand and Greece. The French Navy also used them in Indo-China until 1954. |
